Device for monitoring medication delivery devices

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure relates to a device for handling medicament delivery devices and is to be used with a safety container, where the medicament delivery devices have information retaining elements having information that is unique to specific medicament delivery devices, and which medicament delivery devices are to be put in a safety container after use. The disclosed device has an information obtaining mechanism operably arranged to obtain information from the medicament delivery devices placed into the safety container.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a U.S. National Phase Application pursuant to35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/EP2016/062976 filedJun. 8, 2016, which claims priority to European Patent Application No.15171973.9 filed Jun. 12, 2015. The entire disclosure contents of theseapplications are herewith incorporated by reference into the presentapplication.

TECHNICAL AREA

The present disclosure relates to a device for monitoring medicamentdelivery devices and in particular a system where the traceability ofmedicament delivery devices is enhanced.

BACKGROUND

Monitoring aspects of self-administration is becoming more and moreimportant from several aspects. One aspect is that many physicians wouldlike to have more information regarding how a patient is handling theadministration of drugs, especially if the patient is following atreatment scheme. In many cases the physician has to rely on what thepatients are telling, which may or may not be actually according to thetruth. This gives an uncertainty as to how well the patient isresponding to the treatment. For instance, if the patient misses severaloccasions when a dose was to be administered, or administers doses toounregularly, too close to and/or too far to a previous dose, then thismay adversely affect the treatment, which could be misinterpreted thatthe treatment scheme is not good. In that respect, it might be that thepatient does not want to tell the physician that he/she has not followedthe scheme and may even discard medicament delivery devices that havenot even been used in order to conceal that the treatment scheme has notbeen followed.

Some solutions to monitor user behaviour have been directed at nothaving the device as such performing any monitoring or recording whenthe device is being used but to utilize other equipment that is used inconnection with medicament delivery devices. One such equipment is asafety container such as a sharps bin, sharp objects container, medicalsafety box, biohazard container and the like, that is required whenhandling medicament delivery devices arranged with injection needlesthat may cause injuries such as unintentional needle sticks. The user isrequested to discard the medicament delivery devices as soon as possiblein the safety container

The use of a safety container may be utilized for obtaining informationregarding the user's behaviour. The use of a safety container instead ofmonitoring by the device as such is an advantage in that the medicamentdelivery device needs not be modified in order to be able to monitor,record, store and/or transmit information regarding the use of themedicament delivery device.

One solution incorporating a safety container is disclosed in thedocument WO 2014/204958. The document discloses an apparatus forobtaining information from used medicament delivery devices before theyenter the safety container. According to a favourable embodiment, theapparatus will have a section or compartment before the safety containercomprising a sensor that is capable of recording date and time andspecifically by creating an image of the medicament delivery devicepassing the sensor. The sensor is then capable of transmitting thecaptured information wirelessly to a communications device by differenttechnologies such as RFID, NFC, Bluetooth, etc. Also Ethernet lines orWiFi devices may be used.

The apparatus according to WO 2014/204958 is rather complicated in viewof the function and the information obtained. The image creating sensoror camera is an expensive solution for providing a time stamp of thediscarding of a used medicament delivery device. It is stated that theimage sensor is capable of detecting specific types of waste, but it isvery unclear how this may be done or for what purpose. The apparatus hasfurther no blocking elements or the like preventing other objects frombeing thrown into the safety container.

There are other aspects of the handling of medicament delivery devicesthat are important and that is an overall traceability not onlyconnected to adherence, but also regarding expiry date of the drug,recall of drug batches, prevention of parallel import as well asrecyclability. It would therefore be an advantage if a medicamentdelivery device has a unique identification element that can be utilizedto monitor adherence as well as to in addition trace the medicamentdelivery device from manufacture to recycling worldwide.

SUMMARY

The aim with the present disclosure is to remedy the drawbacks of thestate of the art devices. This aim is obtained by a device comprisingthe features of the independent patent claim. Preferable embodimentsform the subject of the dependent patent claims.

The disclosure relates to a device for monitoring medicament deliverydevices. These may comprise a number of different designs and inparticular, but not exclusively, devices which are handled outsidehospital environments, e.g. at home, and often by the patientsthemselves. The medicament delivery devices could be inhalers, tabletdispensers and in particular injectors having injection needles and thelike which may cause injuries. The word monitoring is to be interpretedas incorporating obtaining and/or collecting specific identificationdata of a medicament delivery device.

The medicament delivery devices are arranged with information retainingelements comprising information that may be unique to specificmedicament delivery devices, whereby each medicament delivery device canbe identifiable. According to handling and user instructions, thesemedicament delivery devices are to be put in a safety container afteruse.

In the following description the wording safety container will be usedand it is to be understood that this wording may comprise any containercapable of containing a number of different medical waste products, suchas lancets, scalpels, band aids, gauze and many more products thateither may cause injury if handled wrongly and/or are bio hazardous,risking of causing transfer of infectious, possibly lethal, diseases, ina safe way so as not to harm people or the environment.

The device comprises an information obtaining mechanism operablyarranged to obtain information from medicament delivery devices enteredinto said safety container. The information regarding the medicamentdelivery devices is thus obtained by the information obtaining mechanismthat can derive various data depending on the type of informationretaining elements and the type of data stored on these elements.

According to one solution, the device may be arranged connectable to thesafety container. This may be an advantage in order to ascertain thatthe information obtaining mechanism is within reading distance of themedicament delivery devices that have been thrown into the safetycontainer. As an alternative, the device may be arranged as a stand onwhich the safety container may be placed. This provides a slim and handysolution where the safety container stands on top of the stand andwherein the stand is arranged with the information obtaining mechanismclose to the area where the discarded medicament delivery devices areplaced.

Regarding the information retaining elements, they may in a preferablesolution comprise wireless technology information tags, and wherein theinformation obtaining mechanism comprises wireless receiving elementscapable of obtaining information wireless from the information tags. Onesuch wireless technology may comprise radio frequency identification;RFID. The advantage with the RFID technology is that a large number ofinformation tags may be read at the same time. Another advantage is thatthe RFID technology provides the possibility of reading information tagsat some distance, especially if ultra-high frequency RFID is used.

According to on feasible solution, the device may preferably furthercomprise an electronics circuit capable of providing a triggering signaleach time the information obtaining mechanism obtains information from aspecific medicament delivery device entered into the safety container.The producing of a triggering signal may be the most basic function thatthe electronics unit may provide when detecting a medicament deliverydevice. The triggering signal may for example be used for creating atime stamp when the electronics unit has a clock or time counterfunction, wherein the time may be derived when the signal was triggered,either directly by the clock function or by counting from a known startmoment.

The electronics circuit of the device may further comprise storageelements capable of storing the time stamps. In this way the handlinghistory of using and subsequently discarding medicament delivery devicesmay be stored and then later retrieved from the storage elements. Inthat respect, the device may further comprise a communication unit,operably arranged to communicate the triggering signals or the timestamps to external information receivers. The handling history may betransferred the patient, relatives or to persons responsible for thetreatment of patients, like physicians that have designed individualtreatment schemes to patients, wherein this information will provide arecord of the compliance or adherence of the patients treatment scheme.

According to a favourable solution, the communication unit may comprisea wireless communication circuit, and wherein the wireless communicationcircuit is designed to communicate via near range communicationtechnologies, cellular radio communication networks and/or local areanetworks. With this solution, there are a number of possibilities howthe stored information in the device may be transmitted to externalinformation receivers without the use of physical connection by datacables or the like.

In addition to the time stamps, the information retaining elements maycontain additional information that is specific to each medicamentdelivery device and wherein the information obtaining mechanism iscapable of deriving the specific information. In this respect, thespecific information may be stored in said storage element. Further, thecommunication unit may be capable of transmitting the specificinformation to the external information receivers.

According to a further preferable solution, the device may furthercomprise a weight recording mechanism capable of weighing the medicamentdelivery devices entered into said safety container. This solutionprovides the possibility of obtaining further data regarding userhandling and user adherence. For instance, regarding user handling, theweight information can be used keeping track of how many medicamentdelivery devices that have been entered into the safety container.Further, if the specific weight of each medicament delivery device whendelivered is known, then the weighing of the discarded medicamentdelivery device will give an indication if the medicament contained inthe delivered medicament delivery device has been administered or not.

Further information that the device may obtain are from additionalsensors capable of sampling and analysing body fluids of a patient,wherein the information obtaining element is capable of obtaining theanalysed data. The body fluids may for example come from blood samples,saliva, tears from eyes, urine and the like that may readily be takenand analysed. This provides further possibilities of monitoring theprogress of the treatment of the patients. In this respect, the sensorsmay be arranged on the device, integrated in the medicament deliverydevices or in external stand alone devices.

These and other aspects of, and advantages with, the present disclosurewill become apparent from the following detailed description of thedisclosure and from the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

In the following detailed description of the disclosure, reference willbe made to the accompanying drawings, of which

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of an embodiment of the device togetherwith a safety container,

FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of the device of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 shows an enclosure for the device of FIG. 1 such that the deviceis hidden from view; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the enclosure of FIG. 3 containingelectronics associated with the device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, the wording smart devices will be used. Inthis context, smart devices may include electronic devices that areprovided with processors that are capable of running computer programsand storage space to store programs as well as data retrieved fromdifferent external sources. It is further to be understood that thesmart devices are provided with communication systems that are capableof communicating with data networks in order to access differentdatabases. It is to be understood that databases may be accessed via theinternet, so called cloud services, and/or databases that are connecteddirectly to and accessed via local area networks. It is further to beunderstood that the smart devices in this context comprise some sort ofhuman-machine interface for two-way communication. The human-machineinterface may comprise displays, keyboards, microphones, loudspeakers,I/O-ports for connection of peripherals. Further the smart devices maybe provided with antennas for wireless communication with the networks.Also, the smart devices may be arranged with receiving and transmittingmechanisms capable of communicating with RFID/NFC tags as well asprograms capable of establishing and handling the communication with theRFID/NFC tags.

Further, in the following description, the wording medicament deliverydevice will be used. In this context, medicament delivery devices mayinclude a number of devices capable of delivering certain doses ofmedicament to a user, such as e.g. injection devices with or withoutinjection needles, inhalers of all kinds, such as powder, aerosoldriven, gas, nebulizers having mouth or nasal pieces, but in particularmedicament delivery devices that may cause injuries or be harmful if nothandled properly, especially after use.

The present disclosure relates to a device for obtaining informationfrom medicament delivery devices that have been discarded, whichinformation can be used for different purposes such as adherence of aprescribed treatment plan of a patient There are a number of differenttechnologies that are applicable but the most favourable technologyregarding cost, usability, readability, and attachment possibilities isthe Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, technology.

RFID has found its use in many applications where objects can beidentified in a simple and fast manner. In many applications, passiveRFID tags are used, and in particular as labels that are attached toobjects or components that are to be traced. A special type of RFID is aNear Frequency Communication NFC technology that can be applicable insome instances. However, the NFC technology requires that a reader and atag are close to each other, in the order of 10 cm or less. That willthen require that devices arranged with NFC-tags are close to anNFC-reader, which may not be possible in all circumstances. However, ifRFID-tags are used, and especially ultra high-frequency tags, then alarge number of devices arranged with such tags may be read at the sametime and from some distance.

In a preferred embodiment, all medicament delivery devices used arearranged with at least one RFID-tag. The RFID tag is arranged withinformation that is unique to the specific medicament delivery device.The information may comprise a unique serial number or the like. Anexternal database may then be set up connecting further information tothe specific serial numbers such as date of manufacture, batch numbersof components comprised in the medicament delivery device, the weight ofthe medicament delivery device as delivered to a user without anyprotecting packaging or other components that should be removed beforeuse, the type of drug contained in the medicament delivery device, batchnumber of drug, date of manufacture of drug as well as expiry date ofthe drug, just to mention a few types of information connected to themedicament delivery device.

It is however to be understood that the further information mentionedabove that is comprised in the external database may be stored in theRFID tag itself if such a tag is chosen that has a memory capacity thatcan store the information. The RFID tag is then programmed at themanufacturing of the medicament delivery device with all necessaryinformation regarding both the medicament delivery device as well as thedrug.

In order to monitor the behaviour or adherence to a treatment scheme, anRFID-reader is arranged to a safety container. According toinstructions, each time a medicament delivery device has been used, itis to be thrown in the safety container. This is registered by theRFID-reader arranged such that it can read RFID-tags inside the safetycontainer.

According to one feasible, non-limiting solution as seen in FIG. 1, itcomprises a base 10 or stand on which a safety container such as asharps bin 12 may be placed on or attached to. The safety container 12may be any ordinary sharps bin or medical safety box and does notrequire any specific features or designs. The base 10 may be arrangedwith a number of features and functions as will be described.

An electronics circuit 14 is arranged in the base, FIG. 2. It comprisesan RFID reader circuit 16, which in turn comprises an antenna 18 capableof reading the RFID-tags on medicament delivery devices thrown into thesafety container 12. It further comprises memory storage elements 20 forstoring data retrieved by the RFID reader. Further, a processor 22 isarranged for performing a number of functions based on data program codestored in the memory storage elements. The base could also be arrangedwith suitable human interface devices 24 such as displays, indicationlamps, keyboards, loudspeakers, microphones etc. depending on thedesired functions. The electronic circuit is further arranged with asuitable power source 26 for its function, which could be batteries,photovoltaic panels, or power from mains.

The base is further arranged with a communication circuit 28. This maycomprise suitable connection elements 30 such as sockets for USB-devicesand/or cables, Ethernet-sockets, and the like attachment elements forcables suitable for communication. Also, the communication circuit maybe provided with transmitting elements 32 for wireless communication.The wireless communication elements may comprise near rangecommunication technology such as RFID, NFC or the like, as well asBluetooth, Ant, Zigbee, just to mention a few.

However, the wireless communication elements may preferably comprisecellular radio communication networks, e.g. GSM, 3G, 4G, etc. and/orwireless local area networks, which networks can provide access for thebase to the internet and thus to a large number of external data storagesources, data handling centres, etc.

One of the functions or features of the base could be that theelectronics circuit may have a timer function capable of providing atime stamp of when a medicament delivery device has entered the safetycontainer and been identified by the RFID-reader. The time stamp maythen be stored in the memory of the electronics circuit. One or severalstored time stamps may then be retrieved by appropriate data retrievingtechnologies. One such could be a portable memory connected to the I/Ointerface of the base. The portable memory may comprise a USB memorywhich may be attached to appropriate receptacles for retrieving thestored time stamps.

The USB memory may thereafter be connected to a computer or other smartdevice that can process the data of the time stamps. In that manner, thepatient's usage behaviour over time may be monitored. The usagebehaviour may be compared to a prescribed treatment scheme that thepatient has received from his/her physician or other medically skilledperson, whereby the adherence of the patient will be derived. Anydeficiencies in the adherence can then be addressed by the physician ofthe patient.

Also or instead, a communication cable such as a USB cable may beconnected, which cable may be attached to a computer or a smart devicewith its other end, whereby stored time stamps are transmitted via thecable and handled in the same manner as above. Also, or instead, theretrieved data, either by a portable memory or by cable, may betransmitted by the computer or smart device to remote informationstorage sources, e.g. on the interne, by using the communicationcapabilities of the computer or smart device.

Thereby, the user or patient may use his/her own computer or smartdevice for retrieving saved time stamps and to use appropriate availablecommunication networks for transmitting the retrieved data to adedicated information source, from which a physician or medicallyskilled person may obtain and process the data. The physician or skilledperson may then use the communication networks transmit information tothe computer or smart device of the user regarding the adherence of thepatient and to alert or instruct the patient depending on the results.

However, if the communication elements are arranged in the base as such,then the base may communicate directly with external data storagesources, data handling centres etc. via the communication networks. Timestamps may then either be stored locally and transmitted at specificintervals or may be transmitted directly without storage.

If the RFID-tags are provided with further information that is storedtherein, then this additional information may be transmitted togetherwith the time stamps to external databases and stored there. Thisinformation may then be used by a number of functions for handling themedicament delivery devices. For instance, the information may be usedas mentioned in connection with recycling operations, as well as otherprocesses where information regarding the device is necessary.

In addition to information regarding used medicament delivery devicesthe user may provide further information that is directlypatient-oriented. One area that is growing steadily is patient reportedoutcome or PRO. The PRO's are methods or questionnaires where responsesof treatment schemes of clinical trials are obtained directly from theuser or patient. Commonly assessed features may comprise symptoms andother aspects of well-beings, overall functioning of patient, healthstatus, general health perceptions, quality of life, health relatedquality of life, ratings of treatment etc. Such information may beentered by the patient or user via the human interface of the base andthen transmitted to suitable databases for further handling of theinformation. The PRO information may as an alternative be entered by thepatient via his/her computer or smart device when handling data from theelectronics circuit of the base.

As a further alternative, the human interface may comprise a voicerecognising function, wherein the patient or user may enter PROinformation by speech. There could in that regard be an interactionwherein the electronics could pose questions via the human interface,which are answered by the patient. The recorded answers could then betransmitted to suitable databases for further handling. Regarding thevoice recognising function, it may even be advanced enough to recognisevoices from specific persons. This may for example provide thepossibility for several users or patients to use the same stand forentering PRO information, wherein the electronics is able to connectrecorded answers with specific persons. Also, if several patients areusing the safety container for disposing of used medicament deliverydevices, the electronics of the base may be activated such that is posesa question who is disposing the medicament delivery device. Theelectronics may then be able to register specific persons and connectthem to the disposed medicament delivery devices by recognising thevoice of the answering person.

Regarding detection and registration of specific persons using the samesafety container it is of course possible to utilize otheridentification mechanisms such as biometric methods, i.e. fingerprintdetection, eye detection etc. The electronic circuit is then arrangedwith appropriate sensors and biometric readers that are capable ofidentifying individual users. Further, the human interface may bearranged with a keyboard or key pad as mentioned above, wherein a userenters a personal code each time a medicament delivery device isdiscarded in the safety container.

The electronics circuit may further be arranged with a function ofcounting and storing the number of medicament delivery devices that arecollected in the safety container. The I/O devices of the base may thenalert a user when a predetermined number of medicament delivery deviceshave been discarded in the safety container, indicating that the safetycontainer is full and needs to be replaced with a new safety container.The number of medicament delivery devices discarded may also be used forinitiating a refill of the prescription of drugs. For instance a certainnumber of used and discarded devices may trigger a message to thephysician or the pharmacy of the patient that the prescription needs tobe renewed.

In addition to the time stamps and the number of medicament deliverydevices that the base may collect, further information stored in theRFID tags may be collected and/or used.

In that respect, the base may comprise a weight measuring devicecomprising weight sensors 34 connected to the electronics circuit. Theprocessor is then capable of calculating the weight of individualmedicament delivery devices based on the information from the weightmeasuring device as well as the total weight of the medicament deliverydevices inside the safety container. This information may on the onehand be used to alert when a predetermined total weight has beenreached, indicating a full safety container, in turn leading to analert.

On the other hand, the information may be used in detecting if themedicament delivery device has been used or not, if the electronicscircuit has been provided with information regarding the weight ofmedicament delivery devices that the user has been prescribed. Theweight information could be derived on a specific device basis sinceeach medicament delivery device is unique if it has been provided withan RFID-tag. The specific medicament delivery could then have beenweighed at the assembly plant, which weight could be stored at aninformation storage location accessible to the communication circuit ofthe base or stored in the RFID-tag.

When detecting and recognizing a discarded medicament delivery deviceand recording its weight, the electronics circuit could then beprogrammed to retrieve weight data from either the external informationstorage location or from the RFID-tag and compare the two weights. Ifthe weight differs within a predetermined range, this is an indicationthat the medicament delivery device has been used. On the other hand, ifthe difference is very small or none, this is an indication that themedicament delivery device has been discarded unused. If on the otherhand the recorded weight is outside both an unused and a used medicamentdelivery device and/or no reading can be obtained when sensing a weight,this is an indication that unidentified material has been disposed,which may not be allowed.

The weight information may then be transmitted to a physician of theuser, alerting that the user has not complied with the treatment scheme.In this context it is of course possible that the weight information issent to an external data processing location where the retrieval of theinitial weight of the medicament delivery device is retrieved andcompared to the weight transmitted by the base. Regarding transmissionof data to a data processing location and to a physician or health caregiver, it is of course possible to transmit data the other way, i.e.from a physician to the electronics circuit. The data may then bepresented to the user of the safety device. For instance, a physicianmay want to do changes in the treatment scheme depending on the resultsobtained from the data transmitted from the electronics circuit of thestand and this change can then be presented via the human interface,which may be audibly, a voice message or visually via a written message.If more people are using the safety container, messages directed tospecific persons may be accessible via the identification mechanismmentioned above.

Even though a solution with a stand, on which a safety container isplaced, is advantageous because a weight function can be used, it is ofcourse possible to have the device releasibly connectable on any surfaceof the safety container such as on the side or on top of the container.Because of the reading range of the RFID reader, the device may not evenbe directly connected to the safety container, but may be placed at somedistance.

As another alternative, the stand and the safety container may be placedin an enclosure or have a cover 40, FIG. 3, such that the safetycontainer is hidden from view. This may be a feature appreciated by manyusers wanting a more discrete appearance than the often bright red andyellow safety containers. With a discrete enclosure or cover 40 thesafety container may be placed in for example the kitchen without beingconspicuous. The cover is then preferably arranged with an opening orpassage 42 so that the hidden safety container may be accessed withouthaving to remove the cover.

As a further alternative, the electronics that in the previousembodiment was placed in the stand below the safety container may nowinstead be placed in the cover, and preferably in the upper part of thecover as seen in FIG. 4. This enables the human interface 34 to beplaced so that it is easily accessible for a user, both for displayinginformation as well as entering information. The cover may then bearranged with an ordinary bottom or without any bottom. As with theprevious embodiment, this solution may comprise all information andcommunication features as seen in FIG. 4, enabling communication to andfrom the cover. One advantage with this solution is that, if NFC or RFIDreaders are used, the direction of the beams from the readers may bedirected inwards/downwards towards the safety container, reducing thespreading of radiation in the room or space that the device is placed.

Further, the safety container as such may be arranged with an RFID-tag50 that can be read by the RFID-reader of the base. When a new safetycontainer is placed on the base, this is registered by the electronicsof the base, and the information regarding the safety container may betransmitted to external databases via the communications circuit.Further, the RFID-tags of the safety container may be used in connectionwith the user handing in a full safety container to enterprises that areauthorised to handle safety containers, such as e.g. pharmacies, fordestruction. The safety containers may then be identified, enablingtraceability of both the individual safety containers as well asindividual medicament delivery devices stored therein. Further, theRFID-tag of each specific medicament delivery device may compriseinformation regarding a complete list of materials contained in themedicament delivery device, which information may be used to form acomplete list of disposed material, which list may be used for enablingor facilitating recycling of material.

By using the unique information carriers like RFID-tags, it is possibleto trace and to keep track of medicament delivery devices in acontrolled manner from manufacture to destruction of the devices. Inorder to be able to trace and track the medicament delivery devices somesort of identification mechanism has to be utilized.

Since the medicament delivery device is arranged with an RFID-tag, thisfeature may be used in a number of situations and for a number offunctions. For instance, the medicament delivery device may be arrangedwith an RFID-tag at the manufacturing stage. During the manufacturingstage, the RFID-tag is programmed by appropriate equipment capable ofwriting information to the RFID-tag. The RFID-tag may further compriseadditional sensors such as temperature sensors, wherein the temperaturesensors may be used for logging the temperatures that the medicamentdelivery device has been exposed to. The temperature log may then beused for controlling and/or alerting if the medicament delivery devicehas been exposed to excess temperatures, which may be important to drugswhose performance is dependent on the right temperatures.

The RFID-tag of the medicament delivery device may in addition be ableto communicate with additional sensors of the medicament delivery devicesuch as clocks, switches, sensors, etc. In this respect, the medicamentdelivery device may be arranged with sensors that are capable ofobtaining samples from the body of a patient, such as blood, saliva,tears or urine, and may analyse the sample in order to provideinformation of the health status of the patient, sometimes referred toas lab on a chip or LOC or biosensors. This information may then eitherbe stored in the RFID-tag or be transmitted to external informationcentres when the medicament delivery device is discarded in the safetycontainer. It is to be understood that the LOC may be arranged onanother device than the medicament delivery device. This device may thenbe arranged with an RFID-tag that may be read by the RFID-reader of thestand. Some LOC or sensors may be powered by electromagnetic inductionfrom magnetic fields produced near the reader. Some types collect energyfrom the interrogating radio waves and act as a passive transponder.Other types have a local power source such as a battery. In thatrespect, regarding electromagnetic induction, the RFID-readers antennamay be sufficient to power the LOC's or biosensors. As an alternative,if the LOC's or biosensors require more power, but do not have localpower sources, additional antennas may be built into the device. Thepower supplied may be used for “wakening” the LOC's or biosensors andthen for performing the analyses.

Since each medicament delivery device is arranged with a unique serialnumber, it is easy to trace each specific medicament delivery device inthe logistics chain from the manufacturing/assembly plant to the user,by providing reading of the RFID-tags along the logistics chain andcomparison with the data provided from the external databases,preferably cloud-based. It is therefore very easy to detect and identifyany counterfeit products and/or products that have been parallelimported.

Even though the wording medicament delivery device has been used above,it is to be understood that this wording in the present context maycomprise a number of medical waste products, such as lancets, scalpels,band aids, gauze and many more products that either may cause injury ifhandled wrongly and/or are bio hazardous, risking of causing transfer ofinfectious, possibly lethal, diseases, which products may be arrangedwith unique information retaining elements as described above.

It is to be understood that the embodiments described above and shown inthe drawings are to be regarded only as non-limiting examples of thedisclosure and that they may be modified in different ways within thescope of the patent claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A device for monitoring medication deliverydevices, which device is to be used with a safety container; whichmedication delivery devices comprise information retaining elementscomprising information that is unique to specific medication deliverydevices, and which medication delivery devices are to be put in a safetycontainer after use, the device comprising: an information obtainingmechanism operably arranged to obtain information from medicationdelivery devices entered into said safety container; and sensors capableof sampling and analyzing body fluids of a patient, wherein theinformation obtaining element is capable of obtaining the analyzed data.2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the device is arrangedconnectable to said safety container.
 3. The device according to claim1, wherein the device is arranged as a stand on which said safetycontainer may be placed.
 4. The device according to claim 1, whereinsaid information retaining elements comprise wireless technologyinformation tags, and wherein said information obtaining mechanismcomprises wireless receiving elements capable of obtaining informationwireless from said information tags.
 5. The device according to claim 4,wherein said wireless technology comprises radio frequencyidentification; RFID.
 6. The device according to claim 1, wherein thedevice further comprises an electronics circuit capable of providing atriggering signal each time said information obtaining mechanism obtainsinformation from a specific medication delivery device entered into saidsafety container.
 7. The device according to claim 6, wherein saidelectronics circuit is capable of providing a time stamp by thetriggering signal.
 8. The device according to claim 7, wherein saidelectronics circuit further comprises storage elements capable ofstoring said time stamps.
 9. The device according to claim 6, furthercomprising a communication unit, operably arranged to communicate saidtriggering signals or said time stamps to external informationreceivers.
 10. The device according to claim 9, wherein saidcommunication unit comprises a wireless communication circuit, andwherein said wireless communication circuit is designed to communicatevia near range communication technologies, cellular radio communicationnetworks and/or local area networks.
 11. The device according to claim6, wherein said information obtaining mechanism is capable of derivinginformation that is specific to each medication delivery device.
 12. Thedevice according to claim 11, wherein said specific information isstored in said storage element.
 13. The device according to claim 11,wherein said communication unit is capable of transmitting said specificinformation.
 14. The device according to claim 1, wherein it furthercomprises a weight recording mechanism capable of weighing themedication delivery devices entered into said safety container.
 15. Thedevice according to claim 14, wherein said weight information is addedto the specific information of the medication delivery devices.
 16. Thedevice according to claim 1, wherein the sensors are arranged inmedication delivery devices.
 17. The device according to claim 1,wherein the sensors are arranged externally.
 18. The device according toclaim 1, further comprising a power generator capable of providing powerto said sensors.
 19. A system for monitoring medication delivery devicescomprising: a device; and a safety container associated with the device,where the safety container is designed to accept used medicationdelivery devices having information retaining elements containinginformation that is unique to specific medication delivery devices,wherein the device comprises: an information obtaining mechanismoperably arranged to obtain information from medication delivery devicesplaced into the safety container; an electronics circuit capable ofproviding a triggering signal each time the information obtainingmechanism obtains information from one of the specific medicationdelivery devices placed into the safety container; and sensors capableof sampling and analyzing body fluids of a patient, wherein theinformation obtaining element is capable of obtaining the analyzed data.